the january options. i think you look at december options, they're not going to probably be able to tell me anything because i'm starting to convince myself that this is far more about taxes than other reasons. >> i would guarantee if there is a fiscal cliff agreement, this stock shoots up big time. >> capital gains. that's all about capital gains in my mind. i cited other things i think are a problem but capital gains is why they're selling. >> have a great weekend, everybody. "power" starts right now. >> announcer: halftime is over. "power lunch" and the second half of the trading day start right now. indeed it does. and today on "power lunch," no progress. a very stark assessment from the house speaker on where the fiscal cliff talks stand with 24 days to go. where should you put your money heading into this weekend? could be a very crucial weekend. no worries. with the unemployment rate still near an 8% level, why some companies can't find workers.

there's work and it is not a skills gap. we'll show you what else is being factored in to that equation. and no fair, perhaps? well, a big change at big blue. ibm changing the way it pays down its 401(k). will other companies follow suit? tyler mathisen, my partner, who is always fair, always working, and is always a work in progress, according to this, is at new york stock exchange. hi, ty. >> i am the ultimate work in progress. thank you very much. despite the assessment from the speaker of the house on the fiscal cliff, the fact he says there is no progress being made so far, the dow sort of playing past it. right now the industrials up by 46 points at 13,120 and change. apple is part of the nasdaq. apple down $14 a share. another 2.66% today as scott mentioned a moment ago, $50

billion in market value shaved off of apple this week alone. let's begin with those comments just 24 days to go until america confronts the fiscal cliff. house speaker boehner coming out earlier today and saying no progress has been made in the negotiations. our chief washington correspondent john harwood is here with the latest. >> reporter: we ended the week with a fairly perfect, simple, clear, elegant expression of the partisan differences in this fight. speaker boehner came out and gave a press conference where he essentially said president obama has done nothing to compromise with republicans. here's the speaker. >> four days ago we offered a serious proposal based on testimony of president clinton's former chief of staff. since then there's been no counteroffer from the white house. instead, reports indicate that the president has adopted a deliberate strategy to slow-walk our economy right to the edge of

the fiscal cliff. >> reporter: not surprisingly, democratic house leader nancy pelosi had precisely the opposite explanation for what is behind this stalemate. she says republicans simply echoing the white house are going to have to buckle on the issue of the top rates. >> the only obstacle standing in the way of middle income tax relief are the republicans unwillingness to ask the top 2% to pay their fair share. >> but tyler, as you suggested, this is all a work in progress. the thing we cannot see that is not visible to the public or to the press is what's going on behind the scenes. staff discussions resumed yesterday. don't know how fruitful. i haven't gotten much of a signal from people on either side that a deal is close, but they're work rg at it and sometimes these situations can turn around quickly. >> john, what of the reports today that perhaps at some point the republicans in the house and in the senate would go along

with the idea of extending the bush era tax cuts for the under-250 cohort of taxpayers, but let the rest of the thing just go off the cliff? is that a possibility here? >> sure, it is. there's a significant number of different possibilities from going over the cliff for a brief period of time, going over further, from resolving the sequester part of the cliff but not the tax part. all of these things are elements of the broad discussion we've been having in this town for a couple of years about tax rates, about entitlement spending, about deficits that have topped $1 trillion throughout the obama presidency. i suspect all of them eventually are going to get settled but they aren't going to get settled at the same time, including the debt limit increase. >> john harwood, thank you. let's see where we do stand on the fiscal cliff deal. let's look at our "rise above" meter. time to stop talking and start

actle. we were at a half-way point, now back to a quarter on the "rise above" meter, closing to no deal than deal. lawmakers trying to solve the fiscal cliff issue. police trying to solve a burglary at the home of california congressman darrel issa. according to reports, more than 50 pieces of jewelry worth about $100,000 were stolen from the congressman's home on november 29th. watches, earrings, rings, bracelets involved and what issa spokesperson calls irreplaceable family air looms. to the jobs report today. super storm sandy slammed the east coast but it looks like it didn't have all that much impact on the labor market. november jobs numbers coming in much stronger than expected. steve leisman who's had a very busy week here to talk about the numbers and put it in context for us. >> hi, sue. no substantive sandy in the jobs

numbers. the lack of sandy effect has us scratching our heads, what they said. i just got off the phone with the guy who's the head of doing the numbers, labor numbers at the bls. he walked me through the rather extensibilive process they did fine out if there was any sandy effect, including sampling of businesses in a flood tide areas. >> it was very meticulous. >> i'm pretty convinced they did a good job figuring out if there was an effect and there is no effect which brings us to the numbers which you could believe on face value as much as you can. they'll revise this again. they only come forward with 60% to 70% of the sample. unemployment rate falling 7.7% because largely a drop in the labor force. average hourly earnings up 0.2%. despite positive headlines,

xwoeld man sax says we interpret this report as one only slightly better than expected overall given downward revisions and weaker labor force and it does not change our assessment of the underlying strength of the labor market. private sector up 147. manufacturing down 7,000. services doing pretty well, up 169 though that number could have been flattered by retail hiring up 53,000 because early thanksgiving, early retail hiring. confidence numbers. on the right part of your screen, we have decline in consumer sentiment all because of the speckations index not because of current conditions. >> terrific, steve. well deserved weekend to you. in today's yahoo finance question, have we turned the corner on jobs. vote on that, go to

yahoo.finance.yahoo.com. jim iuorio, how should you play those job numbers of earlier today? >> first of all, i look at these numbers from a lot of different angles. i don't see anything we can characterize as just more than okay bordering on good. you look at the unemployment rate, that number by itself is largely useless unless you take it in context with the participation rate which was not very good. what i expect will happen now is next week we have the fed who is going to reassure of its commitment to keeping rates low. i don't think money is going to bounce far out the risk spectrum. i think money will tip toe out risk spectrum and largely end up in companies like coca-cola, johnson & johnson that represent some stability to people and some yield when you get 1.5% and change in the 10-year. that's where i think the sweet spot is. i'm sure some money will jump out -- >> those who perhaps have a better appetite for risk. but not everybody does going into the end of the year.

speaking of dividends and capital gains, apple once again down another 3%. >> speaking of risk. >> well, or not. if they reach a fiscal cliff agreement, can you have people piling in. >> there could be a knee-jerk hire. i'm still very concerned about apple. not long term as all. it is still 2002012, people may still want to book capital gains. i think it has to be closer to new year's for me to get interested in apple. >> have you looked at the options market action in it? i don't know whether you have. >> i glossed over it and hasn't given me anything substantive yet. i want to draw our viewers' attention to avon products. this is a rare one to leave the s&p 500 but that's what's happening right now. shares up almost near the highs of the day here at 5.2%. analysts aren't exactly sure what's behind the move but still, it's one to mention.

remember coty offered to buy avon a couple of times earlier this year. they walked away from that deal twice. in a year we're down more than 15.5% on avon products. automakers revving up sales. mercedes-benz posting its best results ever in america. the ceo of the u.s. division will join us exclusively to talk about how he plans to keep those sales motoring along and whether he is hiring. speaking of hiring, with millions still out of work, why are manufacturers having a tough time filling new positions? phil lebeau searching for answers? wheeling, illinois. >> tyler, the answers will surprise you. at this plant, the ceo says i would hire ten people immediately if i could. guess how many applicants he has for some of the jobs right now? zero. we'll explain why when "power lunch" returns. music is a universal language. but when i was in an accident...

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jobs are front and center today despite an unemployment rate hovering near 8% in the manufacturing world. growing problem that is frustrating many executives. plenty of job openings but they can't find people to fill them. what's the problem? phil lebeau knows. he's at a manufacturing flant wheelin plant in wheeling, illinois. >> this surprises a lot of people but at this company,

they've got ten openings. i've heard this from other manufacturers as well. they can't fill the jobs. it is not a skills gap. it is because they can't find applicants willing to take the job. look at how many manufacturing openings have come up across the united states over the last couple of years. it's gone from roughly 90,000 up to a quarter million. that's how many manufacturing jobs are open right now. when you look at some of these companies, like here at afilion, they have jobs gone unfilled for months. what do they do here? they turn to lights-out manufacturing. essentially, they take these cnc machines, computer programmed machines, they will program them during the day, turn offer the lights, go home and they have product waiting for them in the morning. the ceo says he has no choice because he can't fill the second and third shifts. >> i sometimes wake up in the morning and i'm thinking, maybe people really just don't want to go to work. maybe it's easier to just stay

at home and not work. i don't know. >> all day long we've been doing this story and i've been getting e-mails, people on twitter saying you can't live on what these people are offering. they're starting at $1 an hour. you do the makth, that comes ou to $520 a week before taxes, $26,000 for the year. if you can't live on that, how are you living on unemployment at $450 or $500 a week? for a lot of manufacturers, they're frustrated that they can't bring people $13 an hour, then walk them up the pay scale to $20 or $25 an hour. >> phil will join me in this conversation. mercedes-benz usa posting an all-time sales record with november sales of over 32,000 units. joining us in the "power lunch" exclusive, steve canyon, mercedes-benz usa's president and ceo. phil will pick up on the auto questions but i'd like to talk

to you about the economy in general. your company has such an interesting footprint in the united states. you are hitting an all-time sales record, yet people are still worried about the economy. tell us how business is and how you view the economy right now. >> business for us is great. we're going to set an all-time record. in fact we'll finally surpass our all-time high in 2007. in 2007 just before the recession, that's when the auto market was around 17 million units. it's only going to hit about 14.5 this year but despite that we're going to surpass our sales record from 2007. even though the recovery has been mixed and unemployment has stayed high, we are bucking that trend with a pretty positive sales result. >> does the fiscal cliff debate and the lack of a resolution at this point impact your business at all? are you hearing from your customers that they might put off a purchase or they're worried about making a purchase given the lack of resolution in washington? >> predominantly it is the uncertainty. on the consumer side, absolutely it has an impact.

kind of daily reports of doom that come out all of the media channels. zblipts's playing out on our channels. >> it reinforces consumer skepticism. absolute impact on consumer sent many so it leads to postponing. i think we see that. we sell sprinters, it is a commercial vehicle that's aimed solely at small businesses. in the fourth quarter we have seen a softening of that even though we're up 25% for the year. a slight slowdown in the fourth quarter and that's because small businesses are absolutely postponing purchases as this fiscal cliff debate wages on. >> phil, over to you. >> thanks, sue. steve, i'm curious from your perspective, you look at what happened with incentives for the luxury automakers last month. you guys were putting out $4,800 per vehicle that you were selling. that was the incentive according to truecar.com. other luxury brands were matching as well. how much richer can you make these deals in order to close out the year as the luxury leader? >> we are absolutely 100% in

plan for what we spend. it is very typical at the year-end event. all manufacturers sell a bigger portion of their cars in the fourth quarter than they do in the previous three. so this is very much business as usual and consumers are very price point sensitive right now. we are seeing great demand out there but consumers still love a deal and we send out that signal that during this limited period during year end they're going to get a special deal and that's what's filling up our show rooms right now and leading to record sales. >> two quick questions. in terms of credit quality, can you lease your car through mercedes-benz. a lot of people do. are you finding balance sheets of most consumers are healthier now? >> absolutely. in fact, over the last several years, folks have been paying attention to their balance sheets so we see that. our customers tend to be on the higher end anyway for mercedes-benz purchase but they are -- >> in much better shape. >> they're in fine shape. >> good luck with the super

dome, by the way. the name mercedes-benz is on the super dome. are you the sponsor this year for that particular venue. any odds on who's going to be in the stadium? >> lots of people at 110 million people are going to be watching and what's nice about it is we're launching an all-new product for mercedes-benz. that's why we're so e sited about next year. we'll introduce a new product representing our gateway to the brand underneath our c-class. we're opening up the mercedes-benz franchise to a broader, younger audience and using that mass read super bowl in the mercedes-benz super dome to do that. >> good luck. nice to have you here. ty, over to you. >> this story is causing some outrage. ibm reportedly overhauling its 401(k) plan in a way that many think is not favorable to workers. if other companies go along with the idea, it may have huge ramifications for how much you could have in your 401(k) at retirement. could also impact how money

flows in to the markets. plus, former aol ceo steve case is going to join us to outline his big plan to get america working and keep the u.s. firing on all cylinders on innovation. that and more when we return on "power lunch." maybe new buildings? what about updated equipment? they can help, but recent research shows... ... nothing transforms schools like investing in advanced teacher education. let's build a strong foundation. let's invest in our teachers so they can inspire our students. let's solve this. try running four.ning a restaurant is hard, fortunately we've got ink. it gives us 5x the rewards on our internet, phone charges and cable,

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she also likes to ride her bike. she knows the potential for making or losing money can pop up anytime. that's why she trades with the leader in mobile trading. so she's always ready to take action, no matter how wily... or weird... or wonderfully the market's behaving... which isn't rocket science. it's just common sense. from td ameritrade. welcome back to "power lunch." i'm courtney reagan with a quick "market flash" for you. we want to take a look at shares of apple. we've been watching them very closely. it now appears we are at that death cross. that means with today's decline,

apple's 50-day moving average is now below the 200-day moving average. apple's shares down 2.6%. ibm drawing fire over its plan to overhaul its 401(k) program. the "wall street journal" says ibm now plans to contribute a lump sum once a year payment, end of the year, to employee accounts instead of making those contributions twice a month. if other companies follow suit it could have huge implications for investors. joining me now to discuss this, bob pisani and john carney of cnbc. gentlemen, welcome. bob, i get how this is not helpful to workers. you lose the benefits of any dollar cost averaging. you may be ending up getting a lump sum at the end of the year. and if you leave the company before the end of the year, you don't get anything. but what's the real ben fet efi ibm? >> they save on administrative and accounting and they may have even constudies that indicate they'll actually save by make being the lump sum payment because you don't have to put it

in certain times of the year and there may be overall cost savings for them. i don't think this is good news for employees at all. it's not just the loss of dollar cost averaging. i think that people may end up putting in less to their account and that's the overall issue. >> i guess savings might accrue from a fact if a worker leaves in july, ibm will have put nothing in for their worker or september or october or whenever. you got to be there into late december to get something so there are some savings there, but beyond that i don't get it. >> i bet what they're doing here is investing part of this money during the year and so they're taking the money that you would be earning if you were paid throughout the year and being a crewing it to themselves. i think it is a terrible deal for workers. what it really does is it puts you at risk for your company. if you get laid off or let's say you worked for lehman brothers and you had one of these plans, you would actually not get paid at all because they went bankrupt in september.

you're taking the credit risk. >> i think there is a broader legal issue. if i leave in september and can't collect that money that's due, that payment, that's money i have earned. the company has promised me. i think there is a legitimate legal question around this. >> and it does weird things to the market because all of a sudden instead of money coming in throughout the year, you're getting a giant influx of money that has to be invested in some way all at once. it's very strange. >> bob, ibm is just one company, albeit a large one. but if other companies went along with this and made a year-end deposit into accounts, what kind of liquidity boom would you see at the end of the year for stocks? >> you might see some kind of liquidity boom, yeah, i would agree with that. but let me tell you something -- they're a market leader in this area. ibm led the way a few years ago when they eliminated the pensions for new employees. now a lot of companies routinely don't do it. look at the assault on retirees

savings efforts. they're not doing a pension anymore. pensions are under assault. social security's going to be cut back. now 401(k)s are getting -- they're finding ways to squeeze that. this is a real problem for people saving for retirement. >> the world is a different place these days. john, bob, thank you. we'll see you later on the power rundown. one of the topics we'll talk about is the netflix ceo getting an s.e.c. notice because of a facebook posting and so the question is, are regulators behind the curve when it comes to overseeing social media. google plans to start charging small businesses for its free services like e-mail and google docs. will consumers be next it with those fees? from "50 shades of grey" to 5,000 shades of green, publisher random house giving employees a lot to cheer about this holiday season. we'll explain when "power lunch" continues in just a moment. ♪

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half past the hour. that means gold prices are closing. sharon epperson has been track being the action for us all day at nymex. >> we're looking at a lot of action in the gold market in this session on this jobs report friday. as we saw gold prices plummet

when that number came out to right around $1,685 an ounce. closing right now though near the highs of the session around $1,705. the key here of course has been this range that gold prices have been in for the better part of the month with the low side around $1,680 and the high side around $1,750. what is interesting is what has happened despite the decline we've seen this week in the gold price. the slight decline there. the resilience of the retail investor, the fear trade, the safe haven trade definite rly o that traders and investors who want etfs are going for. they want the gold and silver largest etfs and increasing their holdings there. those levels for the holdings are near record levels even with the price price lag we've seen in the flat price of gold and silver this week. bob -- still talking about that ibm story but let's talk about the trading action today. >> we are basically flat for the

week, up a little bit today but this is about as sideways as you're going to get in terms of the markets here. major sectors, industrials up fractionally. energy stocks okay. tech, materials a tough week to the downside, weighed down by apple which lost about $50 so far this week. financials were the big gainers. big comments this week about job layoffs but most of those big names were up again today. these stocks have turned around here. bank of america now well north of $10. home builders having a very rare down week. but up a little bit here today. i anticipate 30% increase in orders next week. kb home also to the up side. horton announces a dividend acceleration earlier today. finally noting here, courtney just mentioned apple and there you see apple down -- apple was $585 at the start of the week. that's $50 off of apple this week. >> the dow is higher today.

we'll go up town in a moment to the nasdaq and seema. could you imagine what the dow would be doing this week if the apple were in it? the dow is a price weighted index. >> that's why it would not be in it. they'll have to do some kind of split of apple to put it in there. $600 -- >> can you imagine? >> $50 right now would have dropped hundreds of points off of the dow. hundreds. >> seema is up at nasdaq where it is very hard, seema, for the nasdaq market to make progress when apple isn't. >> absolutely. apple is the topic of the day, of the week as well. definitely a volatile week for shares of apple. want to point out at this point, nasdaq is underperforming the major indices. that weak consumer sentiment number offsetting the better than expected jobs report but back to apple, the stock now is on track to have its week in 2 1/2 years. more than $45 billion in market cap washed away. taking a step back though,

looking at other tech stocks moving lower, ceo john chambers of cisco outlining its forward looking strategy at an analyst event. he spoke about taking a more diversified approach to i.t. as the networking demand slows and that cisco has gone too long without making a major acquisition. that stock moving lower in today's trade. quick look at deckers outdoor, the maker of uggs, getting a pop on renewed speculation it may get bought out according to street account and a seeking alpha article. to chicago now, let's find out what the bond markets are doing and to get the news on the layest jobs report from rick santelli. >> cnbc does the best job covering the employment report. though the headline number was better than expected there is a lot of issues there. like all the people scotty beamed from planet unemployed earth to somewhere else, they're just not counted. if you look at the 10-year, it popped up a bit. we're several basis points

higher. one-week chart virtually unchanged. open it up to beginning of august, still hovering at the low end of the yield range, high end of the price range, hovering close to the downside pivot which we've been talking about for months, 1.60. euro versus the dollar, it did get hit on the number right there at 8:30 eastern but it has come back a bit. on the week currently at 29.30. closed the week at 29.90. that's a decent down week especially from levels above 1.30. dollar/yen lots of excitement. dollar really popped but it is everything's come back to unchanged. when you look at a one-week chart, 82.37 now, closed at 82.50 last week, virtually unchanged. back to you. slew of companies announcing special dividend hikes in an effort to avoid higher taxes if we go over the fiscal cliff.

more than 100 companies have announced more than $20 billion in payments in q4. let's get you up to date on big ones for today. shoe carnival declaring a special cash dividend of $1 a share. america's biggest home builder dr horton accelerating all of its 2013 dividend payments into this year. jb hunt transfor the pulling forward its quarterly dividend into this year as well instead of february next year. the move is on in a big way. mixed news on the economic front. the november unemployment rate falling to 7.7%, the lowest since december of '08. beware of the cliff. house speaker john boehner today saying no progress has been made on resolving the looming fiscal cliff. more morial, former mayor of new orleans. we'll talk about the giants and the saints at the end of the segment. you must be encouraged by the unemployment rate coming down and the growth in jobs despite

several headwind in the economy. >> it's better news. it's 33 months of continued job growth but make no mistake about it, the economy is still in suspended animation. still not growing fast enough to make up for all the ground we lost. but whenever there's job growth, it's something to say thank you for. to be hopeful that we're going to have a better future sglp one of the things that occurs to me as we pivot to discussing the fiscal cliff, in this country the thing we have lacked for 25 years, 30 years, is income growth. the result it seems to me is that we have substituted the growth of debt for the lack of income growth. what would you say we need to do to reduce the debt growth and increase income growth? >> we need wages that grow as fast as inflation or faster than inflation. >> how do you get that? >> well, it is difficult.

i think we've got to stop the outsourcing of good paying manufacturing jobs and rebuild those kind of industries. many of them were in urban communities that gave people who may not have had a college education a chance with a good skill to earn a good living. take care of their family. we've seen -- really we've lost so many of those jobs by outsourcing. it was good news this week -- >> when you hear apple saying they're going to build a factory -- >> congrats to apple and i hope apple will do more and more companies will do more to ensure jobs as opposed to offshore jobs. >> yet phil lebeau was just at a manufacturing facility in wheeling, illinois where they have ten openings on the assembly line. they pay something like $13 an hour, $26,000 a year. you're not going to get rich on that but that's a job. and the ceo of that company said that he's having trouble filling

it, in part because people say i'd rather stay on unemployment. now that's his surmise. >> i wouldn't agree with him. think the job training system in america is misaligned with job openings like the type that that ceo has. i could send him, if you give me his name, 13 people who do want to work. some of them may not have the skills that they need. so that's why in the fiscal cliff negotiations it would be counterproductive if congress cut invest. in education and job training to "reduce the deficit" in a way that would impact future economic growth. we've got to fix the workforce investment, the job training system in the united states to prepare people for the types of jobs that ceo has. >> you've been there, you've had to forge deals between warring constituencies. fiscal cliff. what would the solution be if you were handling it? >> i like the idea of the president, john boehner, the key players, getting together with

no staff in the room. the second thing, they've got to be guided by a couple of things. number one, what is best for the nation? not my party, not my philosophy, not necessarily my politics. number two -- >> you'd like it one on one. >> editd' i'd like it one on on discuss specifics in a one on one way. second, they may agree there should be short-term steps and long-term steps, i think we can get there. the nation is counting on them doing something significant. >> saints/giants this weekend? >> i've got to go for the saints. i'm -- >> they both need a win. >> give me a break, giants fans, if you see me. >> mayor morial -- thank you. netflix ceo getting a notice from the s.e.c. over his facebook posting. did he actually violate rules or are the regulators simply behind the ball when it comes to social

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i'm courtney with a quick "market flash." shares of macy's spiking as the company authorizes a repurchase program increasing their program by $1.5 billion. you can see shares spiked on that news, falling down just a little bit. still that is the reason for the move we just saw. in today's yahoo! finance question we asked a stronger than expected jobs report. have we turned the corner on jobs? 18% say yes, the economy is getting stronger. 32% say no. more americans have just stopped looking for jobs. 16% say the jury is out, still worried about the fiscal cliff and 34% say i think the number

is bogus to begin with. let's see what's coming up on "street signs." wow. not sure i can top that one, tyler. but thank you. have we become a nation of pessimists whether our expectations for job creation has dropped so low or are we just realists? netflix ceo getting himself into hot water with a facebook post. does the s.e.c. really have a case against him or do the laws need to change with regard to social media? and could pot help us solve our fiscal problems? guys, we are calling this the fiscal splif and we will rise above it, mon. "street signs" it is australian for business news. >> thanks, brian. see you at 2:00 p.m. steve case is one of america's greatest entrepreneurs, best known as co-founder of america online, along with dozens of other investments such as living social and zip car and really too many to name. these days mr. case, together with scott case, no relation can be head up start-up america

partnership to fuel entrepreneurship outside of silicon valley. and case squared, if you will, joins us now at cowboy stadium in arlington, texas where they are hosting a start-up event. i want to get to start-up texas in just a few minutes but steve, if i could start with you, talk to us about the entrepreneurial environment right now in america. we hear two things. one, we hear that when the economy is not doing all that well, it's the best time ever to try and start something new. and then on the other hand, we hear that a lot of what's going on in america is keeping entrepreneurs from starting those new ventures. >> well, some of that is true. start-ups are down in the last five years. about 23%. but it is worth remembering that we started as a start-up. this company was a start-up in the last couple years, the reason we're the leading economy is because of the entrepreneurs building start-ups that have really powered our economy. we really need to as a nation

double down on entrepreneurship. some of that is what needs to happen in washington, the jobs act that passed six months ago, the broad bipartisan support dealt with crowd funding and on-ramp for ipos. start-up app 2.0 introduces with bipartisan support. there's a role for washington but there's also a role for the private sector particularly entrepreneurs. that's what start-up america is all about and this event in texas, try to highlight some of these great" that can create some of the next great companies that can start up our economy. >> tell me how your organization is working to foster entrepreneurship. >> we know start-ups are happening all across the country. we have tens of thousands of them in a part of start-up america in every state, places like iowa, indiana where we have talked about manufacturing. they're building in the next big giant companies. we're here in texas because texas is one of the leading start-up economies and we've brought together start-ups from all over the state of texas, austin, san antonio and houston

and right here in dallas. we thought no better place to do it than to pitch a two-minute drill on the giant cowboys vision behind us here. but highlighting some of the great start-ups that are here. all the net job growth that's happened in the country in the last 30 years has happened from companies that are less than five years old. we're going to build these companies growing up all around the united states, they'll step up and bring america to the next game. that's what start-up america is all about helping these communities like texas raise their game and bring start-ups to the forefront. >> steve, you mentioned there was bisupport to create this organization. it is important to note no fund governmenting is behind it. >> this is a totally private sector effort to start-up america partners. the jobs act passed by partisan support and the need for bipartisan support around high-skilled immigration in particularpy half of the people coming to our universities for

advanced degrees, ph.ds and masters are from other countries but all too often once we give them degrees we kick them out of the country and force them back to their country and they start companies there that compete with companies here. that's a big focus in washington and hopefully there will be broad bisupport when the congress reassembles in jn after they get through the whole fiscal cliff issue and focus on making sure we have the right entrepreneur policies so we can remain the world's most trurl nation. that's what will drive economic growth up from 2%, driving unemployment down from 8% or so. that will ensure our competitiveness in what's now a more competitive world. we have to double down on entrepreneurs. it is the secret sauce that's built the american economy. >> what about the fiscal cliff? you brought it up. do you think they will take us over the cliff at this point and how damaging if that happens would it be not only to entrepreneurship but to the country as a whole? >> i think it will be troubling. hopefully they won't. i know there is a lot of posturing and hopefully a lot of

quiet negotiations happening and hopefully there will be a resolution that can build pore. it is important not just for the fiscal cliff. i think the country and actually the world is looking at washington saying can these guys work together in a collaborative bipartisan way to deal with fiscal issues, our entrepreneurship issues, we have to start building that bipartisan support. congress did come together, republicans and democrats, house and senate with support of the white house to pass the jobs act around access to capital for entrepreneurs so we have some example of that. hopefully that momentum will continue not just on the fiscal cliff in the coming weeks but issues like the start-up act 2.0 in the coming months. >> gentlemen, look good. steve and scott, come back and let us know how it went in cowboy stadium. google plans to start charging small businesses for its free services like e-mail and google docs. will consumers like you be next? and from 50 stradz of grshaf

gray to 5,000 shades of green. employees at random house getting a big stocking stuffer this season. we'll explain. ears, ameriprise financial has worked for their clients' futures. helping millions of americans retire on their terms. when they want. where they want. doing what they want. ameriprise. the strength of a leader in retirement planning. the heart of 10,000 advisors working with you one-to-one. together for your future. ♪

stock of the day and

certainly the stock of the week has been apple. its worst week in two years, down now $15 a share today at $531.64. about $50 billion in market value sliced off of apple this week alone. time for the power rundown. with us today, bob pisani and cnbc.com net net's john carney. john, start with you on google. pulling the plug on its free apps suite for small businesses. starting now companies with fewer than ten employees going to be charged $50, i gather per user, per year. what's this say to you about the possibility that they may start charging regular consumers for these -- >> i don't think they will start charging regular consumers but i think it is great that google is trying to monetize these very valuable products. i've loved gmail. i've loved all of google's office products. i think it is really nice to be able to access them anywhere and i think it is absolutely their

right to start charging for it. i do think they're going to try to figure out how to charge even people for even more services but i don't think it will ever come down to charging just the ordinary consumer using their gmail account. >> $50 a year for productivity suite like they have. i think that's cheap. everything for free on the internet? get over it. it's not happening anymore. that model is going to go away. >> it's very cheap. $50. if you think of what people pay up for windows and for microsoft's office and for even apple's products, it is a lot more than that. this is cheap. it is a good deal for people. >> moving on to the s.e.c. slapping the netflix crow reed hastings with a wells notice over one of his facebook posts. are ceos a little bit clueless when it comes to social media? are regulators behind the curve? what's going on here. >> i don't want to sound too lawyer like but i'm not sure what he did is sufficient disclosure under regular fd. i was here for red fd in 2000.

it happened because there was selective disclosure on conference calls that people couldn't get into. he put something out in the public but i don't know if that is sufficiently public enough. i don't want to sound too lawyerly but i think it might not be actually. >> i think this is ridiculous. it's far more public to put something on facebook than it is to file something with the s.e.c. where an average investor will never see that. the regulators are way behind the times here. if you want people out there disclosing, encourage them to put stuff on twitter, encourage them to put stuff on facebook and maybe the s.e.c. should start scanning those and picking it up rather than somebody having to pay a lawyer a bunch of nonfile some with the s.e.c. it's ridiculous. >> you could very simply cure this by having a notice made or public statement made by the s.e.c. that you must file a press release of some kind. >> right. exact exactly. the xxx-rated bonus. random house rewarding its staff with a $5,000 bonus.

anybody who's been there all year gets one thanks to the runaway success of "50 shades of grey." the ceo, bob, announced this last night or the night before at a cocktail party. he was pouring drinks. he said take the bonus and don't bother coming to work together. that's my kind of guy! >> now what exactly do you have to do for this $5,000? i'm sorry, all you have to do is be an employee? that's it? i think it's great. this is a great story. book publishing industry had a lousy year. revenues are down, employment opportunities in the business are down. it's shrinking. this was a little bit of good news. god bless the guy. >> i think it's really awesome that they're doing this for their employees and they're not even making them agree to be tied up and whipped or anything like that. so i think way to go -- >> that's what i was leading up to. >> really nice. >> guys, thanks very much. have a great weekend.

sue? >> my, my, my, john carney. in the next hour, the fiscal spliff. could pot be the key to a successful financial future? that's coming up on "street signs" at 2:00 p.m. eastern time. "power lunch" is back in two. ♪ [ male announcer ] 'tis the season to discover the kid in all of us. enjoy free shipping and great values on your holiday shopping from l.l. bean. [ male announcer ] how could switchgrass in argentina, change engineering in dubai, aluminum production in south africa, and the aerospace industry in the u.s.? at t. rowe price, we understand the connections of a complex, global economy. it's just one reason over 75% of our mutual funds

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s&p 500 basically flat. it has been hanging in there around 1,400 for a couple of weeks now. nasdaq suffering from the apple effect, down 17 points as apple loses another big amount today, more than 2%. industrials though are up, sue, by about almost 50 points. bob pisani pointed out today though if apple had been a part of the dow this week, the dow probably would be off about 350 points. >> certainly would have been a very tough week for the dow jones industrial average. jim iuorio has been with us all week. president at tjm institutional services, a cnbc contributor. you are watching yum! brands. couple days ago yum! brands got annihilated based on some bad news out of china. it seems it